Results 1-14 of 14 for blasphemy segment:7543366

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Ned O'Sullivan: The Fianna Fáil Party will support this legislation. On 26 October 2018, citizens voted overwhelmingly - 64.85% - in favour of removing blasphemy from the Constitution. In 2009 the then Fianna Fail Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, stated that as a republican his personal opinion was that church and State should separate and that he favoured abolishing the offence of...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

David Stanton: It gives me great pleasure to be with Senators to present the Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019. It is always a privilege to come before this House to advance new legislative proposals, and I am particularly happy to be here today to propose legislation that is intended to give effect to the outcome of a referendum to amend the Constitution. Senators will...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Ivana Bacik: ...I know the Minister of State is aware of that also. There are three crucial reasons to welcome this legislation. First, this is outdated, and I have explained that with respect to the origins of blasphemy. Anyone who looks at the history of the use of blasphemy offences will be aware of that, particularly when we have a Republic that is, as it should be, premised on the separation of...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

David Norris: ...homage that is due to God Almighty, and so on. Those are inappropriate, in my opinion. To look at it this way, the great dean of St. Patrick's, Jonathan Swift, would be absolutely banged up on a blasphemy charge for A Modest Proposaland for his various diatribes on religion. The great dean, Jonathan Swift, would be up in court if we maintained this legislation. There have been a series...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and am indebted to him. Blasphemy law is dangerous and others have spoken about this. The continued existence of not only a constitutional but a statutory offence since 2009 here has been used in other jurisdictions where we have seen people of minority faiths, especially those who are Christians, being oppressed, abused or suffering terrible physical danger...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: ...opportunity in diplomatic fora to condemn them for making such bogus comparisons.It is an intellectual and political weakness that fails to see that distinction. The abolition of the offence of blasphemy has been packaged by the Government as if it is some great advance for human freedom, correcting a serious injustice. The Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, introduced the Bill in the...

Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...or noted before we give it the nod through the House. One of the most cogent arguments for its adoption is the fact that legislatures across the world point to Ireland as a reason to have blasphemy laws in their jurisdictions which are much more severe in terms of consequences for ordinary individuals. I am a liberal and have no problem with people mocking the religious views of others...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Ivana Bacik: ...devoted to saying what a waste of time this all was. The waste of time was the introduction in 2009 by the then Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern, of a new statutory offence of blasphemy.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Ivana Bacik: ..., it is very important that we move to hold the referendum. This legislation is now necessary to give effect to the desire of the people who voted by a majority of 64.85% to remove the offence of blasphemy. I was involved as one of the political representatives on the Constitutional Convention in 2013, which also recommended the removal of the offence of blasphemy. It should never have...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...view - I say this very carefully - is that the failure of many prominent people in Islam to distance themselves from the death penalties being handed down in certain countries to Christians accused of blasphemy is a black mark against those people, whether they reside in Ireland or elsewhere. I do not intend to oppose the Bill. I emphasise, however, that in getting rid of what is in the...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

David Stanton: ...it. The Defamation Act was mentioned on a few occasions in the debate. The particular Bill before us proposes the repeal of the two sections of the Defamation Act 2009 that provide for an offence of blasphemy. Those sections were expressly excluded, from the beginning, from the statutory review of the Defamation Act, which was mentioned in the debate also, because they deal only with the...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Michael McDowell: The Government, perhaps with a view to ushering through the blasphemy referendum, failed to carefully consider the remainder of the Constitution. As Senators know, Article 44 was amended to remove the special position of the Roman Catholic Church and references to various other denominations, including the Jewish denomination. The inclusion of the reference to the latter domination was...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: ...what we are doing in these Houses at this moment to the level of a joke. It was the widely respected former Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Keane, who said in 1991 that a referendum to remove the blasphemy provision would be a time wasting and expensive exercise, and he was correct. After wasting millions of euro on a referendum to abolish a dead letter constitutional provision last October,...